Issue 179

June 2019

For the Bellator middleweight, it’s still about learning even though he’s now a coach himself.

What do you do when you’re training to keep your cardio at such a high level in preparation for a fight?

I do a lot of road work. It depends on where I am at during the fight cycle. At the beginning of my camp I do long runs but as we get closer and closer to the fight I shorten up on the runs and pick up the sprinting.

I do a lot of altitude training. But yeah, lots of running. Running is a big part of it.

Back in the day it was a badge of honor to spar hard and go 100% in training but over the years light has been shed on concussions and maintaining brain health. What does your sparring look like these days?

I try to count the rounds. I get to get around 50 rounds of good, solid sparring in before each fight. Sometimes it ends up being less but sometimes it ends up being more. I try to get as many rounds under my belt in fight camp as possible. As far as how hard I go, it’s changed a lot recently.

There has been a lot of talk, as you said, about concussions and brain damage. The sport is evolving. Now we understand the damage we are taking on our body. I don’t spar as hard as I used to. I used to be one of those guys that sparred really hard. People were getting hit hard and knocked out in sparring. I’ve knocked people out in sparring in the past.

The problem I run into with that is if I kick someone full blast, even with shin guards on, it’s going to be sore the next day. Also, you run out of sparring partners. I have come to the point in my career where I try to get specific sparring partners with the style that I want and people that I know are going to work correctly, they aren’t going to come in here and try to prove something.

They aren’t going to do something crazy and then I have to knock you out. That’s happened a lot in the past. It’s just about getting good, solid guys you can work with and then sparring without going that hard. In sparring I am working more on my reflexes, my timing and visualizing and seeing what’s happening in the fight and making those adjustments more so than me knocking a guy out in training.

You are a world-class striker but came to MMA with little grappling and wrestling experience. What have you done or what are you doing to try to make up some ground in that department?

When I train for an MMA fight, it’s still new to me. In the past I was working so much on my wrestling that my striking and sparring and jiu-jitsu and every other area of my game was lacking. I was focused so much on stopping a takedown and getting back to my feet. With MMA versus kickboxing, the cardio is so much more important and it’s so different because cardio level for boxing and kickboxing is mostly upper body and moving your feet. It’s just different. When you are wrestling to get somebody off of on top of you and then get back to your feet, it’s much more tiring. Cardio is a lot more important.

You’ve now done a number of camps with Cowboy Cerrone. What have you learned from your time with him and what do you feel he has learned from you in that time?

I have been working with Cowboy as a training partner for four or five of his last fights. I’ve been working with him for all of his fights since his move to 170. Most of that time was spent sparring with him but for his last training camp I was actually his full-on striking coach. He was done working with Brandon Gibson. It’s a lot of fun but it’s also a lot of pressure.

There is a lot more weight on your shoulders when you are the coach and not just the training partner. We got a great result in this fight [vs Mike Perry]. It’s interesting, right before that I was training Mickey Gall for his fight and both of them ended up submitting their opponents in the first round. Either they aren’t paying attention to what I’m teaching them or they just don’t have to use it. Regardless, they are getting good results. As far as Cowboy goes, he is like a brother to me now. We have been friends for a while. He really understands where I am coming from. He was kickboxer who moved to MMA at one point. He is a stand-up specialist. A lot of his wrestling takedown defense makes sense to me. He has a phenomenal jiu-jitsu game he has worked on over the years.

He has been teaching me a lot of stuff. It has been a real pleasure working with him.